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How was copernicium discovered at the Institute for Heavy Ion Research in Darmstadt?

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Periodic table — zinc group element Modern version of the periodic table of the elements (printable).

In 1996, scientists at the Institute for Heavy Ion Research (GSI) in Darmstadt, Germany, successfully synthesized copernicium (element 112) using a heavy ion accelerator.21

The discovery was achieved by fusing the nuclei of zinc-70 with lead-208. Researchers utilized the accelerator to provide the zinc nuclei with sufficient kinetic energy to overcome electrostatic repulsion and collide with the lead target, causing the two nuclei to combine.21

During the experiment, the team detected a single atom of the new element, which had an atomic mass of 277. This atom was highly unstable and decayed in less than a thousandth of a second by emitting an alpha particle to become darmstadtium-273. The discovery was later recognized by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) in 2009.12